Student Simulation Contest Overview - May 2016

1st

WreckSim

2nd

The Sims

3rd

OttosOtten

Overview of Contest:

There are two ways to enter the Simio Student Case Competition. You can either enter directly or through class participation. This semester, we had 19 teams (45 students) enter directly and 16 instructors with 158 teams (410 students) for a total of 177 teams (455 students).

We also had representation from the following 11 countries:

Chile

China

Colombia

Germany

Mexico

Netherlands

Portugal

Slovakia

Spain

Turkey

USA

The 455 students came from these 33 schools:

Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Auburn University

Binghamton University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Instituto Superior Tecnico

IST

Istanbul Arel University

ITAM

Kansas State University

Liberty University

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

North Carolina State University

Northeastern University

Ohio University

Old Dominion

Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

Rochester Institute of Technology

Sichuan University

Texas A&M University

TU Delft

Universidad Arturo Prat

Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Universidad de los Andes

Universidad Panamericana

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

University of Houston - Central Campus

University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

University of Minho

University of North Texas

University of Pittsburgh

University of Texas at Arlington

University of Zilina

Summary of the Problem:

An aerospace manufacturer is evaluating planned changes to their final assembly systems. Their process line has multiple work stations, each with a statement of work consisting of 10 to 20 aggregated tasks. Each task has unique requirements for labor, tools and material handling. The system is schedule driven, so any work not completed at the time the line pulses will be “traveled” downstream. Production policies regarding this traveled work is one of the items to be evaluated during this project. The manufacturing process is labor-intensive with a steep learning-curve, and work in process is costly. Therefore, process improvement in the areas of labor productivity and reduction of work in process is critical.

The process currently has two established product types and the company plans to add a new product type to the process. The addition of a third production line is also driving the need to evaluate the production plan.

This manufacturer would like to evaluate the optimal production plan of going from the current state of two production lines, to a future state of two or three lines and a new throughput rate. We will be evaluating different demand profiles, line allocation strategies, resource allocation strategies, and production policies such as how to address traveled work.